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Sue Sylvester
Sue Sylvester is the coach of the cheerleading team, the Cheerios, and detests the Glee Club and their teacher, attempting to bring it down at any cost. She is portrayed by Jane Lynch. Jane won an Emmy for best supporting actress in a comedy series for the role of Sue, for The Power of Madonna. Biography Sue is part of the William McKinnley high school staff, and coaches the school cheerleaders called the Cheerios. She is jealous of the Glee Club's talent (as well as the fact that the Glee club is funded from a cut of the Cheerios' money) and is desperate to bring them down .']] 'Season One' "You'll be adding revenge to the long list of things you're no good at, right next to being married, running a high school glee club and finding a hairstyle that doesn't look like a lesbian." -Sue Sylvester on Will. Due to the Cheerios' increasing budget, the teachers' coffee machine was taken away; to make up for it, Sue brings Will and Ken lattes. When Will asks if he could have some of her cheerleaders join the Glee Club, Sue tells him that in high school certain people fall into different spots, the Cheerleaders and Athletes are at the top, the smart kids are at the bottom and the Glee Club kids are below them. However, when her and some of her Cheerios see the glee club kids singing Don't Stop Believin' she becomes jealous of them, and tries to get Principal Figgins to cancel Glee club. Sue thereafter attempts to disband the Glee club. Sue is informs Will that unless Glee club makes it to Nationals, Principal Figgins will cut them. She later catches Finn and Rachel using her copy machine and wants them thrown out of school, but her efforts are blocked by Will. After the Glee club does a greatly offensive version of Push It, Sue is the first to complain, almost getting Glee club shut down. When Quinn Fabray, Santana Lopez, and Brittany Pierce join Glee Club, she orders them to become spies for her. With the Cheerios updating Sue about the Glee club she learns that Will hadn't been showing up for practices and the club's members were considering hiring Dakota Stanley, a cruel yet amazing choreographer that taught Vocal Adrenaline. The Cheerio spies thought that this would convince all of the weaker members of the club to quit. However, Dakota's fee was much too expensive for the club to pay, so Sue allowed her Cheerios to help with a car wash to support the Glee club. However they fired Dakota and Will came back, allowing Glee club to continue on as normal. Sue, however, was not happy with her Cheerios for failing to bring down the Glee club. Later on, Sue obtains her own section of the local news ("WOHN News 8"), named Sue's Corner. However, she learns that unless her Cheerios make it to nationals, "Sue's Corner" will be cancelled. Sue visits Sandy Ryerson and teams up with him to try and get Rachel Berry out of the Glee club. Sandy, who believes that Will has been running Glee club into the ground is happy to help. The two set up a school musical, to get Rachel to audition for. Subsequentially, they give the part to her. When Will gave Rachel's solo to Tina Cohen-Chang, Rachel quit the Glee club. Sue later finds out that Sandy has been yelling at Rachel, and trying to convince her that she is a horrible singer so that he could write himself into the musical, instead of Rachel. Rachel agrees to rejoin Glee club, but after hearing that Quinn was pregnant, she confronted Sue and said that if she wanted her to return, there would have to be some changes made. Sue agreed with her completely and gave her control of the musical. However, Rachel ended up rejoining Glee club. Sue is seen writing in her journal where she talks about a "recent disaster" where Quinn's leg quivered during a practice. She wrote that the quiver would cost her nationals unless she stopped the Glee club, because Quinn's excuse for quivering was that she was tired from Glee Club. She decided to blame Will Schuester for it. She thought if she failed at ruining Glee Club, she could try to ruin Will. So, she talked to his wife Terri Schuester about Will's relationship with Emma Pillsbury. Growing suspicious, Terri got a job as school nurse despite having no medical experience. She gave all of the Glee club members performance enhancers so Principal Figgins decided that they would need a Co-Director, for which he chose Sue. Sue is the New Directions' new Co-Director, causing huge arguments between Will and herself. She asks her Cheerio spies (Quinn, Brittany, Santana) what they think the club's biggest flaw was, and Quinn said "The minorities think they are not being heard." She splits up the Glee Club according to minorities, trying to make the kids think Will is racist and sexist, and causes conflict. Sue comes up with a song for the minorities (or Sue's "Elite" Glee Club). They sing Hate on Me, with Mercedes singing the solos. Sue also finds out that her Cheerios are not academically eligible to be cheerleaders, because Will flunked them all to sabotage her. Sue also forces Jacob Ben Israel to reveal to her that Quinn is pregnant. Sue gives Will back full power of the Glee Club. Sue finds a new relationship with Rod Remington, a fellow co-worker at the news station she films "Sue's Corner" at. He wants to take her a "swing" dancing competition, so Sue gets dance lessons from Will, building a friendship. Sue finds out that Rod is cheating on her with Rod's partner news anchor, Andrea Carmichael, ending their relationship. This break-up puts Sue in a bad mood again, abruptly ending her and Will's friendship, to no surprise. She kicks Quinn off the cheerleading squad for being pregnant, which she was not going to do when Rod had put her in a good mood. Sue is forced to hold an open audition for the Cheerios, having removed Quinn. Kurt, Mercedes and some other students try out, but she refuses all of them. Except when Becky Jackson, a girl with down-syndrome tries out. Sue accepts her to Will's surprise, ending the auditions. Principal Figgins wants to take money from the school's different budgets to get more handicap ramps, but Sue thinks it is a horrible idea, refusing to give up any money. In the end of the episode, Sue suddenly pays Figgins for three new ramps. Later on, it is revealed that Sue's sister, Jean, has down-syndrome as well, and it put her in the mood to help the disabled kids at McKinley. Sue forces Will to give her the set list, even threatening to come back as Co-Director of the Glee Club. Will gives in, handing over the set list, which she immediately takes to the other directors of the Glee Clubs competing show choirs. Sue convinces Principal Figgins to not let the Glee Club have a picture in the Thunderclap yearbook. She says that having a picture of the Glee Club in the Thunderclap would give the other students another change to bully the kids in Glee. Will is angry, and has to buy a small ad in the yearbook just so the Glee Club can be shown. Rachel, not satisfied with the small picture in the yearbook, casts the Glee Club in a mattress commercial. Sue sees the advertisement and has Glee Club's amateur status revoked, almost disqualifying New Directions from Sectionals, but Will accepts the free mattresses given to them, disqualifying him from Sectionals and saving Glee Club. Quinn labels Sue a hypocrite in front of her, because Sue has kept the Cheerios amateur performers even thought they had been given large amounts of gifts such as shoes, haircuts, and complementary tanning. Quinn forces Sue to give up one of the Cheerios' six yearbook pages to the Glee Club. Sue likes her fierceness and accepts Quinn back on the Cheerios for the yearbook photo, but Quinn surprisingly refuses, as she wants to be in a group that wants her there, like Glee Club. cheating on her with Andrea.]] Will finds out that Sue leaked the set list to the other teams. The evidence builds up and is given to Principal Figgins by Will, Grace Hitchens the Jane Adams director, and Dalton Rumba, the Haverbrook director. Furious, Figgins decides to suspend Sue from the position of Cheerleading coach. Sue decides to take a vacation to her condo in Boca, and come back tanner, muscular, and even more hell-bent on Glee Club's destruction. Following the suspension from her position at William McKinley High School, as seen in "Sectionals", Sue blackmails Principal Figgins, slipping him a date rape drug and taking an incriminating photograph of them in a compromising position. He allows her to return to work at the school, where she immediately returns to plotting to bring down the glee club. She also has a secret plan to get rid of Rachel by having Santana and Brittany seduce Finn. Sue then blackmails Figgins into playing Madonna's hits over the loud speaker all day long, and tells her Cheerios they have to find younger men like Madonna dated. This inspires Will, and angers Sue, leading the hair insults to start up again. The insults backfire, having Will come back at her short hair. She then in a flashback.]]reveals to Kurt and Mercedes that she used chemicals in her hair when she was a little girl to bleach her hair like Madonna, as her album "True Blue" was released on Sue's 6th birthday (this would reveal that she was born June 30, 1980). This leads Kurt and Mercedes to give her a makeover and recreate Madonna's "Vogue" video. In Bad Reputation, Kurt finds a video of Sue Sylvester dancing to "Physical". After Finn posts it on the Internet, it circulates around the school quickly. She then complains to Principal Figgins about the situation and presents the "Glist". It is a list based a hotness quotient. In the teacher's lounge, she immediately clashes with new teacher Brenda Castle. Castle even makes a point to laugh at her. Everyone is laughing about her which means no one is afraid of her anymore. Realizing how it is to be laughed at, she apologizes to her sister for not protecting her more. After that, Sue becomes a counselor to Emma and helped her confront Will about cheating. After the endless laughter from everyone, Sue thought it was karma getting back at her for what she did to everyone. Kurt confronts her about posting the video but Sue thanks him. It turns out she got a call from Olivia Newton-John and they both sing "Physical" in a video. It makes her become a top 700 recording artist and gets back at the teachers by showing it to them. Sue confronts her sister and tells her she just needed an attitude change and the only person she needed to persuade is her. She gives her cut of the profits to her sister's nursing home. In Journey, it is revealed that she will be one of the four celebrity judges at the Regionals. This knowledge puts New Directions in a state of despair as Sue is finally in the position to ensure that they do not place at Regionals and therefore, ending Glee Club. At Regionals, Sue initially seems to want to put New Directions in last place. However, after the other judges make harsh remarks about New Directions, she attempts to come to their defense. However, the judges then write her off, stating that it's laughable that she's considered a celebrity. After the votes are placed, Sue is the one chosen to read the results revealing Aural Intensity came in second and Vocal Adrenaline placed first, meaning New Directions came in last and, due to Will's deal with Figgins, would be forced to disband. As Will is emptying out the former Glee Club room, Sue approaches him and begins bragging about how she has proven that she can wipe Glee Club off the face of the earth. She then states that while she doesn't like Will, she truly admires the work he has done with his students. It is then revealed that she actually voted New Directions in first place. Then, when they failed to place, she promised Figgins to never mention their "affair" ever again in exchange for giving Glee Club one more year. 'Season Two' In Audition Sue seems truly done with trying to end Glee Club and even tries to offer Will tips on how to get new kids to audition for New Directions. When Principal Figgins informs Sue and Will that they will each be losing ten percent of their budget to the new football coach, Sue immediately decides that she must stop her. In doing so, she teams up with Will and they both begin bullying Coach Beiste in hopes that she will be unable to cope and resign, thus restoring their budgets. Sue goes so far as to get Brittany to accuse Coach Beiste of inappropriate touching and reccomends Beiste be fired and placed on the sex offender .]]registration list, however Will convinces Brittany to admit that she had made the story up before any damage is done. Sue then presents Coach Beiste with a "peace offering" of cookies made with dog poop. When Will tells Sue he is no longer going to bully Coach Beiste, she becomes angry and once again begins trying to harm Glee Club. She does this by calling the new coach of Vocal Adrenaline, who then convinces potential New Directions recruit, Sunshine Corazon to transfer schools and join Vocal Adrenaline instead. In Britney/Brittany, Sue catches Jacob masturbating to a video of his interview with Rachel while she was wearing an outfit from ...Baby One More Time and concludes that Britney Spears brings out the animal in people. When New Directions perform Toxic at the homecoming assembly (another Britney Spears song), seeing as the students are enjoying the performance, she declares that the assembly had turned into a "Britney Spears sex riot" and pulls the fire alarm, causing students to run into her. She, of course, blames the injury she got as a result of pulling the alarm on Will and informs him that she will be contacting a lawyer and suing him. No more has been heard of the lawsuit since. In Grilled Cheesus, when New Directions begin singing religious songs, she goes to Principal Figgins citing separation of church and state to try to force them to stop. Surprisingly, Figgins sides with Will believing that students should be allowed to practice whatever faith they choose. She then tries to appeal to the school board, but cannot do anything without an official complaint from a student. She convinces Kurt to be the one to file the complaint. Emma furiously storms into Sue's office and demands to know why she wants to take away what could be his only comfort in his time of need. It is revealed that she doesn't believe in God because when she was younger, she prayed for her sister to get better, but nothing ever changed. She further states that she believes convincing someone to believe in a fantasy, however comforting it may be, is cruel. However, after a conversation with her sister, Sue becomes emotional explaining to her why she doesn't believe in God. Jean then simply states that she believes God makes no mistakes and asks Sue if she would like if she prayed for her, to which Sue says yes. At the end of the episode, she watches the kids sing One of Us. When Will asks if she will report him, she says she won't. In The Rocky Horror Glee Show, Sue doesn't like the fact that the Glee club is doing Rocky Horror, because Halloween is her favorite holiday. But when two studio officers offer her a special engagment for a local emmy, she is all over doing the Rocky Horror Picture Show. She helps cast Eddie and Frank-n-Furter, and re wrote the script. In Never Been Kissed, Sue does not have that big a role but upon learning that Coach Beiste quit, she calls Will to the auditorium and shoots off two confetti machines, laughing maniacally. In The Substitute, she uses Lauren Zizes' sickness to infect Figgins and becomes acting principal. She takes the chance to totally abuse her power and begins a war on junk food, banning tater tots, which angers Mercedes, who stuffs her LeCar (apparently one of seven existing cars in the world) tailpipe with tots. Sue also began to get along with Holly Holliday, Will's Spanish class and Glee club substitute. By the end of the episode, after Holly admits that she doesn't really know what she's doing, Sue (after firing Will) reinstates him. In Furt, learning that Rod is engaged to Andrea, which he announces on the air, she immediately reports that she will be married - to herself. This wedding brings her Nazi-hunting mother Doris Sylvester (Carol Burnett) to town. Meanwhile, still principal, Sue expels Dave Karofsky after hearing that the latter threatened to kill Kurt. But the school board overrides her decision and she resigns as principal in protest, promising Kurt that she will try her best to protect him. But Kurt is too terrified and transfers to Dalton Academy. With the wedding taking place at home, Sue "uninvites" Doris after Doris frequently remarks that the whole wedding is ridiculous. In A Very Glee Christmas, Sue rigs the staff Secret Santa to get more presents and tries to squash Brittany's belief in Santa Claus. In The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle, Sue forces Santana, Brittany and Quinn to choose between Glee Club and the Cheerios. She also tries to fire Brittany out of a cannon. In Comeback (she doesn't appear in Silly Love Songs), Sue joins the Glee Club and tries to make Mercedes and Rachel enemies. Her plan ultimately fails. After Will brings her to a hospital and sings with some of the terminally-ill children, she is inspired and she, with the rest of Glee Club, sing Sing by My Chemical Romance. She also becomes the new Coach for Aural Intensity. Personality Sue is the ultimate Alpha-Personality. Cold, calculating, arrogant and vicious, Sue will do anything and everything in her power to get what she wants and to win, and she doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. Constantly under the belief that only she knows what is right, she will ignore all rules and regulations that work against her, while at the same time using those same rules against others. Sue's arrogance also leads her to speak down to people, and to name drop and speak of herself as something beyond everyone else. Sue is also extremely petty. If for whatever reason she gets hurt, she will take it out on everyone around her. She also holds grudges to unhealthy, almost super-villain levels, particularly her desire to destroy the Glee Club for getting money that had once been promised to her Cheerios. She also makes fun of Will Schuester's hair, often commenting about his curls and his perm, even saying he looks like a lesbian and she can't help but picture "small birds laying sulfurous eggs" in his hair and it revolts her. However she is just jealous as it turns out that in the episode Power of Madonna, she bleached it as a child and damaged it permanently and therefore, she can only have her hair short. Sue also holds no loyalty to anyone save herself and her sister. For example, despite both being members of the school staff, Sue is more than willing to betray Will at the drop of a hat. The same held true for Quinn, who for a long time was a loyal member of her cheerleading squad, and who Sue kicked out for being pregnant. However, Sue is not completely without her soft-side. She is very loving towards her sister Jean, who suffers from Down Syndrome and who Sue visits as often as she can. This love for her sister, caused Sue to donate money to the school to help disabled kids, and to allow a student with Down syndrome to join the Cheerios. Also, when Sue had thought she had found love, she became noticeably kinder and more understanding towards others, even Will and the Glee Club. However, when she found out she'd been cheated on, she returned back to her old cruel and vicious nature. She is also insecure about her age, and has on multiple occasions declared herself to be 29, when it is obvious this is not the case. Sues age has been somewhat a mystery throughout the series thus far. In Power Of Madonna we get the first news of her age when in self monologue she admits that she's "about to turn thirty" despite the fact that she looks like someone in her forties/fifties. As well as that, in Furt, we can clearly see on her dating profile that it says her age is "27". It's unknown whether this will develop into a storyline later on in the series or if it's just another comical attribute to Sues personality. Relationships Rod Remington In Mash-Up, Sue falls for Rod. He takes her on a date and invites her to a "Swingers" contest. The relationship fails when Sue finds him cheating on her with Andrea Carmichael. Principal Figgins Although they have not had an actual relationship, after being suspended, Sue took Figgins out to dinner, with Figgins assuring her he wasn't going to back down about her suspension. Sue then proceeds to slip Figgins a date-rape drug, after which he wakes up in bed naked, next to Sue, who then threatens Figgins to tell his wife about their 'night'. Whether she actually had sex with him, is unknown. Sue has since relinquished the blackmail in exchange for giving New Directions another year. Bryan Ryan as Bryan Ryan.]] When a former rival of Will and member of the school board arrives to cut costs, he initially intends to shut down Glee due to his resentment following his failed music career. However, when Will rekindles Bryan's love of Glee, he turns his attention to cutting the Cheerio's budget. His derisive and sneering behavior seems to strike a familar cord with Sue when they confront each other about the cuts leading to a sexual encounter, despite Bryan's marriage. Afterwards however, Sue breaks Bryan's heart through his love of music by informing him that he lost the lead in Les Miserables to Will. Will Schuester Main Article: Sue-Will Relationship, Sue-Will Conflict Initially Will and Sue had an amicable working relationship. However when Will's Glee club began taking funds from the Cheerios, Sue became horribly vindictive and began doing everything possible to destroy the group. In the hopes of teaching her a lesson, Will tried to convince her that he had romantic feelings for her by seducing her with a song and then asking her out to dinner. She waited all night for him before being bluntly told, "Your date's not coming. You got stood up." Indignant and furious, Sue confronted Will who informed her that what he did to her, is exactly what she does to their students. Hurt and humilated, Sue fell into a deep depression and withdrew the Cheerios from Nationals. After realizing how important Sue was to her Cheerios and their futures, Will made amends and Sue returned to normal, although with a bit more respect for Will than before. Sue would later admit to her respect for him when she realized how much he affects the lives of the Glee kids, and proceeded to help them get another year. Josh Groban During Journey, Sue and Josh are members of the celebrity judging panel for Regionals. In keeping with his love of older woman, Josh proceeds to ask whether or not Sue is single while they discuss who should win. However, despite finding Sue attractive, Josh seems to find the idea that Sue is considered a celebrity laughable along with the other judges Oliva Newton-John and Rod Remington. As such, the likelihood of them having a relationship is highly unlikely. Sue Sylvester In the episode Furt, Sue marries herself. Trivia *Claims to have been a Special Ops soldier. She also mentions having been to the Falklands and having taken part in the capture of General Noriega (which took place in 1989). Considering that she claims to be in her late 20s, one of these claims is unlikely. *She claims that Madonna's album True Blue was released on her sixth birthday, which would place her birthday on April 30, 1980. Oddly, this suggests that her claim that she is 29 is only a few years short of the truth. Jane Lynch, who portrays Sue, was born in 1960. *In The Power of Madonna, Sue explains always wears her hair short because it was badly damaged when she and her sister tried to dye their hair blonde using various household chemicals, including napalm and ammonia, trying to emulate Madonna. She still suffers from it, which is why she so often makes jokes about Will Schuester's hair. *Seems to truly care about Kurt, despite frequently referring to him as "Lady" *Frequently calls Emma by different names including Edna, Arlene, Irma, and Elmo. *In Mash-Up, Sue tells Terri Delmonico that she doesn't have a Uterus. *Only wears track suits *Was born in the Panama Canal Zone *Ran for public office twice *Created a list, the "10 Ugliest Gingers" in school, which, acorrding to Figgins, "the perpatraitor sp? would have been expelled if it hadn't been a member of the faculty!" Sue notes that she "stands by that list" *Claims to have taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin *Referred to Coach Tanaka as "You" *Claims she hasn't eaten a solid meal since 1987 (which, according to her age statement in The Power of Madonna, would mean since she was 7) *In Journey to Regionals, Olivia Newton-John is now "dead to her" *Thought Katie Couric was Diane Sawyer *Writes a journal everyday. *Hates "The Rocky Horror Show" because when she was young, she took Jean to a show; the audience was so uncomfortable in the presence of a disabled person, they threw toast at them *In Acafellas, after the Glee club does an offensive number at an assembaly Sue states she "has never seen anything that offensive in 20 years of teaching and that includes an elementary school production of Hair" *Her lawyer is Gloria Allred. *Has given all the New Directions nicknames except for Finn, Puck, Brittany and Lauren. *Is the new coach for Aural Intensity after the events of Comeback. *Seems to like Kurt most of all the Glee Kids as she referred to him in Comeback as sweet porcelain. *Thought that Sam was a girl saying "Let her finish" and "I gotta get this girl on my Cheerios" Songs Solos Season One *Vogue (The Power Of Madonna) Solos (In A Duet) Season 1 *Physical (Olivia Newton-John) (Bad Reputation) Season Two *Ohio (Doris Sylvester) (Furt) Quotations Main Article: Sue's Quotations Category:Characters Category:Staff Category:Female Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Antagonist Category:Doris Sylvester Category:Quotes